Earthquakes, MLS walk fine line between fan groups and families

San Jose Earthquakes fans cheer for their team against the Houston Dynamo's in the first half at Buck Shaw Stadium at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, Calif. on Thursday, May 22, 2008. (Nhat V. Meyer/Mercury News)

An unusual phenomenon has spread throughout Major League Soccer: The emergence of a colorful contingent of fan whose chanting, singing and drum-pounding antics are modeled after European and South American countries where futbol has been elevated from a spectator sport to a national rite of passage.

Whether it is Seattle fans parading through downtown to Qwest Field or the procession of red-clad Toronto supporters making their way to home games, American soccer executives are welcoming these organically grown groups that fuel a rising interest in a sport once seen as the province of Euro snobs.

"MLS supporters groups bring the game back to its roots in European amateur athletic clubs, where players and spectators always drank together at the local pub afterward. We still do," said Richmond's Dan Margarit, founder of the 1906 Ultras, the Earthquakes' most ardent followers.

But as the 16-year-old league steadily gains traction in North America, fan groups that sometimes shout obscenities and display juvenile behavior have put MLS officials in a difficult position as they try to build a loyalty without betraying their family-friendly nature.

Some fans complain these groups bring residual elements of "hooliganism" that once represented the worst of soccer.

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"It's too bad that in their quest to be the 'future' of soccer in America they are condemning the league to a niche sport unavailable to the majority of American sports fans," longtime Quakes supporter Brian Glennon said in an e-mail.

Season-ticket holder Barb Niss of San Mateo endorses the Ultras but wishes they would curtail some of their behavior in the presence of children.

"It'd be nice if they recognized that it is a family-friendly environment," said Niss, a certified public accountant.

Such questions led to a minor rift at Buck Shaw Stadium where the Ultras staged a silent protest two weeks ago because the Quakes placed them on probation for unfurling a banner April 2 that offended some patrons.

Since then the front office and group leaders have reached an understanding, and almost everyone is ready for the Ultras to get rowdy Saturday when the Earthquakes play host to Chivas USA.

San Jose president David Kaval, a refugee of minor league baseball, encourages the grass-roots cheering to distinguish MLS from the homogeneous, team-generated clapping found in other sports.

"The point is to have authenticity," said David Hoyt, president of the Timbers' Army support group in Portland. "That's the real proof that you're tapping into something a little more cultural, a little more primal that makes people want to come to the game just to get in on this crazy alchemy that soccer support tends to be in America."

San Jose fan groups have been around since 1996 when the club, then named the Clash, joined MLS. The Ultras were hatched in 2003 by Margarit, a Romanian immigrant and staunch Steaua Bucharest supporter as a teen.

The generic name Ultras is thought to have originated in Italy but is commonly used by fan groups throughout the world. The groups are known for elaborate displays of support by setting off flares after goals, waving flags and wearing color-coordinated scarves and jerseys.

San Jose's group of about 1,000 fans became the 1906 Ultras when Margarit and Tony Tomasello of San Francisco joined forces once the Quakes re-entered MLS as an expansion team in 2008. The 1906s -- named for the year of the San Francisco earthquake -- originally supported a short-lived lower-division team that played at Kezar Stadium in 2007.

"Our songs are never political, racist or sexist; Kobe Bryant says worse things than we do," Margarit said in an e-mail. "We are not soccer hooligans. There are more fights amongst the parents at the AYSO games than there are at a Quakes game."

Members of San Jose's support groups are season-ticket holders who see themselves as an extension of the club though not officially affiliated with it.

For all the fuss, American fans are choir boys compared with their foreign brethren. Earthquakes rookie Matt Luzunaris has seen the difference while playing in Austria where his Vienna club had a fan group known for vulgarity.

"A lot of them are real racist," he said. "That side I haven't seen in MLS yet."

Nelson Rodriguez, league executive vice president of competition and games operations, hopes to keep it that way. He said the Seattle Sounders didn't report a single arrest two years ago despite selling out all of their home games.

"On average we have fewer arrests than other events in the same stadiums," he added.

North American groups don't come with the political or historical associations found in other places. For example, Red Star Belgrade fans transformed into a brutal militia during the Balkans war in the 1990s when soccer groups fueled Serbian nationalism, according to the book, "How Soccer Explains the World."

The Quakes' Kaval considers his groups -- the Casbah is the other -- integral to the club's overall health. He worked with the fans in the offseason to create guidelines for behavior but knows gray areas still exist.